Coimbatore

115th birth anniversay fete of Avinashilingam on May 5

Coimbatore : As part of 115 birth anniversary celebrations of T S Avinashilingam, the first education minister of Composite Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu) and founder of Avinashilingam University for Women, buildings for new arts and science courses will be opened on May 5.

The campus, Ayya Avinashilingam Nagar, in Pannimadai on the outskirts already has engineering, education and physical education courses for women. Owing to demand, self- financing streams were introduced.

‘Ayya’, as he was reverentially addressed, also served as MP and was recipient of Padma Bhushan and had started the institute of higher education for uplift and empowerment of women.

The sole aim of Avinashilingam, born in Tirupur was that education should reach the poor and he wanted women to get empowered equally in the field of education.

Keeping this in mind, he started the first home science college for women in Tamil Nadu in 1957 with 45 students and was one of the seven colleges in the country to receive the autonomous status in 1978 and the first women’s college to receive this distinction, Krishnakumar said.

The institution has thus successfully completed 60 years of its exemplary service.